Defense Systems Digest - 11 September 2018

What non-lethal technology exists to engage and thwart a targeted vehicle?

DSIAC was asked to research capabilities that provide the warfighter the ability to accurately engage targeted vehicles at a certain weight and speed in a prescribed distance. Existing systems have limitations...

Voice From The Community

Sharon Flank, Ph.D Founder and CEO, InfraTrac

I completed my A.B. studies at Cornell and my Ph.D. studies at Harvard. In 2006, I founded InfraTrac, a company specializing in the development of product protection solutions based on spectroscopy. My areas of expertise include intellectual property protection for additive manufacturing, anticointerfeiting, and medication safety. I worked with defense contractor SRA (now CSRA) to spin out its first technologies and create companies acquired by AOL (Navisoft), the Chicago Tribune (Picture Network International), Kodak (eMotion), and CA (Assentor). I have also authored numerous journal articles—including refereed publications on anti-cointerfeiting, artificial intelligence, and 3-D printing— and hold 10 patents.

This report summarizes information about various unmanned aerial systems (UAS) platforms currently used for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). The applicability of various UAS platforms and sensor payloads for specific types of missions is discussed, and an overview of the challenges of using UAS for ISR in specific environments is provided. Finally, some of the emerging capabilities of unmanned systems and how these systems may be used for ISR in the future are considered.

Model of the Month

WINFIRE, with the Fire Prediction Model (FPM v3.8.2) integrated, simulates events that accompany a single threat penetrating through a vehicle and impacting a container of flammable fluid (e.g., a fuel tank or pressurized line containing fuel or hydraulic fluid). Specifically, the model predicts whether ignition would occur and continues modeling events through fire growth and spread. Simulating ignition is a unique capability that distinguishes FPM from other models outside the survivability discipline, which concentrate primarily on the sustained combustion phase of fires and do not address ballistic-initiated fires.